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The 

STANDARDS 

FLAGS and BANNERS 



Pennsylvania Society 
of Sons of the Revolution 



Published by the Society 



PHILADELPHIA 
1913 



izzoi 



t' Ci Ko 






PRESS OF 

Patterson a White Co. 

PHILADELPHIA 



INDEX 

TAGB 

1. Standard of the Society of Sons of the Revolution .... 7 

2. United States National Standard 9 

3. Flag of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 13 

4. First National Flag of the United States 15 

5. Continental or Grand Union Flag 17 

6. Flag of the Floating Batteries 19 

7. Crescent Flag of Fort Sullivan, S. C 21 

8. Rattlesnake Flag 23 

9. Flag of the Continental Navy 25 

10. Naval Privateer Flag 27 

11. Flag of the First Pennsylvania Regiment 29 

12. Flag of the Hanover Associators, Lancaster County, 

Penna 31 

13. Flag of the Independent Battalion, Westmoreland 

County, Penna 33 

14. Royal (or Bourbon) Flag of France 35 

15. Count Pulaski's Banner 37 

16. Flag of the Commander in Chief's Guard 39 

17. Banner of the Washington Arms 41 

18. Standard of the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry 

(Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse) 43 




HE Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution 
possesses a collection of flags and banners that are 
accurate reproductions of the originals most promi- 
nently identified with the Revolutionary War, and 
used by the forces on land and sea. 
These copies were made from time to time, as the result of 
careful historical investigations by the different committees ap- 
pointed by the Society, and they are now entrusted to the care 
of the Color Guard, by whom they are carried in the Society's 
various processions and celebrations. 

The collection is at present an extremely valuable one, and 
an endeavor is made to add to it as opportunity oflfers. 

The Committee appointed to prepare this book has tried, 
in the pages that follow, to give an illustration, in colors, of each 
flag, together with a brief history of its origin and the circum- 
stances under which it was used. 

The Conunittee has made free use of the text of the Flag 
Book issued in 1903, and compiled for the most part by Cap- 
tain Henry Hobart Bellas, U. S. A. Many corrections and alter- 
ations have been found necessary and in some cases the entire 
rewriting of the descriptive matter, based upon a careful exami- 
nation of the most reliable authorities. 



\ 




STANDARD 



The Society of Sons of the Revolution 

ADOPTED 11191 



The 

STANDARDS 

FLAGS and BANNERS 

OF THE 

Pennsylvania Society 
of Sons of the Revolution 



1. The Standard 
of the Society of Sons of the Revolution 

The Society's flag, which was adopted by the Pennsylvania 
Society of Sons of the Revolution on March 9, 1891, from a 
design, furnished by one of its members, Mr. George Cuthbert 
Gillespie, was also accepted by the General Society on April 4, 
of the same year, as the authorized standard of the entire So- 
ciety. This flag consists of two vertical buff stripes, of equal 
width, with a broad dark blue stripe between, the latter bearing 
the insignium of the Society in gold.* 

The flag is made of both silk and bunting, for the use of 
the Society in its meetings and celebrations. 



* The Society's badge, or insignium, may be described briefly as fol- 
lows : An oval medallion of gold, bearing in relief a Continental soldier 
in the field, with the figures 1775 below; the medallion surrounded by a 
rim of dark-blue enamel with escalloped edges of gold and bearing there- 
on thirteen gold stars of five points each ; the whole surmounted by an 
eagle rising and with wings displayed, in gold. 




UNITED STATES NATIONAL STANDARD 



2. The Present United States National Standard 

By reference to the recent official report of the United States 
War Department on the origin of tlie national flag, it is stated 
therein that "the American Congress in session at Philadelphia, 
Penna., by its resolution of June 14, 1777, established a national 
flag for the United States of America." 

The resolution was as follows : 

"Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be 
thirteen stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union be thir- 
teen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." 

Although nearly a year previous (July 4, 1776) these thir- 
teen United States had been declared independent, this resolu- 
tion is the first legislative action recorded relating to a national 
flag for the new sovereignty. 

The use of the thirteen stripes was not a new feature, as 
they had been already introduced (in alternate blue and white) 
in a standard of the Philadelphia Light Horse Troop, in the 
early part of 1775, and the same colors and form were after- 
wards (in 1783) adopted by the Society of the Cincinnati for 
its banner. 

It has been suggested by a recent writer* on the subject that 
the use of stripes was derived from the Dutch Republic ; the flag 
of the United Netherlands being composed of seven stripes, each 
representing a State. 

The union flag of the thirteen united colonies moreover, 
raised at General Washington's headquarters at Cambridge, 
Mass., on January 2, 1776, had, as will be shown further on in 
a description of that flag, also the thirteen stripes just as they 
are to-day. There is no satisfactory evidence, however, that 
any flag bearing the union of the stars had been in public use 
before the resolution of Congress of June, 1777. 



*Dr. William Elliot Griffis. 



Conclusive testimony concerning the origin and evolution of 
the stars and stripes does not exist.* The credit of making the 
first flag is generally given to a Mrs. Betsy Ross, wife of John 
Ross, an upholsterer on Arch Street, below Third, Philadelphia, 
with which historic legend all Americans are familiar. 

Although the resolution establishing the flag was not offi- 
cially promulgated by the Secretary of Congress until Septem- 
ber 3, 1777, it seems well established that the stars and stripes 
were carried at the battle of the Brandywine, September 11, 
1777, and most probably also, as is claimed, at the affair at 
Cooch's Bridge in Delaware, eight days before, and thencefor- 
ward during all the battles of the Revolution. 

Soon after its adoption, the new flag was hoisted likewise 
on the naval vessels of the new United States. The ship "Ran- 
ger," bearing the stars and stripes and commanded by Captain 
John Paul Jones, arrived at a French port about December i, 
1777, and her flag there received (on February 14, 1778) the 
first salute ever paid to the American flag by foreign naval 
vessels. 

By reference again to the preceding quoted report of the 
War Department, we find the flag of the United States remained 
virtually unchanged for about eighteen years after its adoption. 
By this time two more States (Vermont and Kentucky) had 
been admitted into the Union and on January 13, 1794, Con- 
gress enacted : 

"That from and after the first day of May, 1795, the flag of 
the United States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and white ; that 
the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue field." 

This flag was the national banner from 1795 to 1818, dur- 
ing which period occurred the war of 1812 with Great Britain — 
our second war for independence as it has been justly styled — • 
when there were eighteen States engaged in united defence of 
our country. 



* The popular and generally accepted statement that the design of 
the flag is an intentional copy of the arms of the Washington family, is 
regarded by the best authorities as erroneous. 



II 

By 1818 five additional States (Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, 
Indiana and Mississippi) had been admitted into the Union, and 
consequently a further change in the flag seemed now to be re- 
quired. 

The Committee of Naval Aflfairs of the House of Repre- 
sentatives requested the naval hero. Captain Samuel Chester 
Reid, of New York, who was then in the City of Washington, 
to make a permanent design for the flag.* He presented accord- 
ingly two forms for the same, both bearing thirteen stripes, but 
one with the stars formed into one great star in the union, sym- 
bolizing the motto "E pluribus unum," for our vessels in the 
merchant service; the other with the stars in parallel rows for 
the halls of Congress and the other public buildings, as well as 
for our ships of war. Congress approved of these designs finally, 
and after considerable discussion on the subject, the Act of April 
4, 1818, was passed, which provided: 

1st. "That from and after the fourth day of July next, 
the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, alter- 
nate red and white; that the union have twenty stars, white in 
a blue field." 

2d. "That on the admission of every new State into the 
Union, one star be added to the union of the flag and that such 
addition shall take effect on the fourth of July next succeeding 
such admission." 

The first flag of this last adopted design was made by the 
wife of Captain Reid, assisted by other ladies, in New York City, 
and was first hoisted on the national Capitol building, April 13, 
1818. 

The present authorized arrangement of the stars in the 
union was finally settled by an order of the President ( Monroe ) 
through the Navy Board, dated September 15, 1818. 



♦Captain Reid, in the War of 1812-14, had commanded the American 
brig, "General Armstrong," in the naval fight against three British war 
vessels in the harbor of Fayal, in the Azores, September 26 and 27, 1814, 
virtually winning there a signal victory (though he lost his own vessel), 
by the disabling of the enemy's squadron, which was part of the expedi- 
tion against New Orleans, and so delaying Admiral Cochrane's fleet at 
Jamaica, that Louisiana was saved from British conquest, and General 
Jackson was enabled to gain his victory at Xew Orleans before the arrival 
of the enemy's strong reinforcements. 



12 

The return of the original thirteen stripes of the flag of 1777 
was due, in a great measure, no doubt, to a reverence for the 
flag of the Revohition, but it was also due to the fact that a fur- 
ther increase of the number of stripes would have made the width 
of the flag out of proportion to its lengtii, unless the stripes were 
narrowed, and this would have impaired their distinctness when 
seen from a distance. 

No act has since been passed by Congress altering this fea- 
ture of the flag — the thirteen stripes representing the number of 
States that originally effected American independence, and the 
additional stars marking the newly-admitted States since then — 
and it is the same as first adopted, except as to the changes in 
the number of stars in the union, which have not, however, been 
always arranged, until recently, in both horizontal and vertical 
parallel rows. 

In the war with Mexico the national standard bore twenty- 
nine stars ; during the late Civil War thirty-five, and since July 
4, 1876, when there were thirty-seven, the number has increased 
to forty-eight at the present time. 

What additional number of stars will be added in the far- 
reaching future, with our constantly increasing territories and 
possessions changed into possible Statehood, is a question none 
can definitely answer to-day. 

The lines written by one of our country's best and most 
patriotic poets, Joseph Rodman Drake, may, however, be fit- 
tingly applied to this "Star-Spangled Banner," immortalized by 
Francis Scott Key, and which is also popularly designated to-day 
as "Old Glory": 

"Flag of the free hearts' only home, 

By angel hands to valor given ; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome. 

And all thy hues were born in Heaven !" 

The facsimile of this Standard was presented to the Society by 
Horace Magee, Esq. 




FLAG OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 



13 



3. The Flag of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 

The early seals of the Province of Pennsylvania, prior to 
the Revolutionary War, consisted of the coat of arms of Wil- 
liam Penn, surrounded by an appropriate inscription. The change 
from the Provincial to the State seal dates from the year of In- 
dependence, 1776. On the 28th of September, of that year, the 
Constitutional Convention appointed Messrs. Rittenhouse, Jacobs 
and Clymer "a Committee to prepare the seals for future legis- 
lature and executive council of the State." Their report does 
not appear on record, — but shortly after the seal is found on 
State papers of the form which remained in use for the ensuing 
thirty-two years. 

The seals of the early Pennsylvania Counties were formed 
by mounting a distinguishing crest upon the shield of the Penn 
coat of arms. The crest of Chester County was a plough, that 
of Philadelphia County a ship under full sail, and the crest of 
Sussex County in Delaware, a sheaf of wheat. The latter de- 
vice also appeared in one of the quarterings of the seal of the 
City of Philadelphia. The crest of Bucks County was a fig tree, 
and not a wheat-sheaf, as has been incorrectly supposed.* 

These three devices being combined, the first seal of the 
State consisted of a circle having a band across the middle bear- 
ing a plough, with a ship under full sail in the upper segment, 
and three sheaves of wheat in the lower, the whole surrounded 
by the inscription, "Seal of the State of Pennsylvania." In 1809, 
when the matrix of the great seal had become worn, a new die 
was made, elaborated by the addition of an eagle as a crest, a 
stalk of Indian corn on the left of the shield and an olive branch 
on the right. 

In 1777 the coat of arms of the State was engraved by one 
Caleb Lownes, of Philadelphia, and consisted of a shield upon 
which the ship, plough and sheaves were emblazoned ; second. 



* See "The Seal and Arms of Pennsylvania," by James Evelyn Pil- 
cher, L.H.D., and "Pennsylvania Archives," 3d series, vol. xiii, frontispiece. 



14 

a crest, consisting of an eagle with outstretched wings ; third, 
supporters, consisting of two black horses harnessed for draw- 
ing a vehicle, one upon each side of the shield, and behind each 
of them a stalk of corn ; fourth, a cornstalk and olive branch 
crossed below the shield, and fifth, the motto: "Virtue, Liberty 
and Independence," upon a ribbon below the other elements. 

This coat of arms underwent many vicissitudes of elabora- 
tion and curtailment until, in 1874, the General Assembly ap- 
pointed a commission "to correct the Coat of Arms of the Com- 
monwealth" and "to have the same recorded in the State Ar- 
chives." 

In 1875 this Commission reported that they had adopted the 
Arms as represented by Caleb Lownes in 1778, which represented 
the veritable arms of the State. These arms may be described 
technically as follows : 

Escutcheon. — Party per fess, azure and vert. On a chief 
of the first, a ship under full sail. On a fess, a plough, proper. 
On a base of the second, three garbs, or. 

Crest. — An eagle, rousant, proper, on a wreath of its colors. 

Supporters. — Two horses, sable, caparisoned for draught, 
rearing, respectant. 

Motto. — "Virtue, Liberty and Independence." 

The flag of Pennsylvania is of deep blue, with golden fringe, 
bearing in its centre the arms of the Commonwealth, displayed 
as above described, in their proper heraldic colors. 



i 





FIRST NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES 



15 



4. The First National Flag of the 
United States 

This flag consisted of thirteen alternate red and white stripes 
with thirteen stars in a circle on a blue canton in the upper right- 
hand corner.* A variation of this canton bore twelve stars 
formed into a circle, with a single star in the centre. The flag 
was adopted by resolution of the Continental Congress at Phila- 
delphia, Penna., on June 14, 1777, and was first used in the en- 
gagement (it is claimed, and where a monument has been erected 
to commemorate the event) at Cooch's Bridge, below Wilming- 
ton, Delaware, September 3, and (it is known) at the battle on 
the Brandywine in Chester County, Penna., September 11, 1777. 

The facsimile of this Flag was presented to the Society by James 
Mifflin, Esq. 



* The words, "upper right-hand corner," or "dexter side," are always 
used in the text heraldically and are to be construed, as to position, as 
if the "field" of the flag were reversed and placed in front of the body as 
a shield would be held. 




CONTINENTAL OR GRAND UNION FLAG 



17 



5. The Continental or Grand Union Flag 

This flag, consisting of thirteen alternate red and white 
stripes (the same as its immediate successor, the first national 
flag of the United States just previously described), had, instead 
of the union with thirteen stars in the upper right-hand corner, 
the British Union "Jack," composed of the red and white crosses 
of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue field, as the canton. The 
flag was first unfurled at Cambridge, Mass., January i, 1776, 
on the organization of the new Continental army that had suc- 
ceeded the several State battalions in active service during the 
previous year. 

The American Congress had not, it must be remembered, 
yet declared the colonies "free and independent States," and 
even at this late day the Americans proffered their loyalty to 
British justice, if it were possible still to obtain their rights and 
liberties. Hence the retention of the British or Union "Jack," 
as used on the flag of the mother country. 

The facsimile of this Flag was presented to the Society by James 
Mifflin, Esq. 




FLAG OF THE FLOATING BATTERIES 



19 



6. The Flag of the Floating Batteries 

In September, 1775, two strong floating batteries were 
launched on the Charles River, Mass., and in the following 
month opened fire on the enemy in Boston. Their ensign used 
was a pine tree flag.* The six schooners first commissioned by 
Washington in the same month to cruise in Massachusetts Bay 
and the first vessels commissioned soon afterwards by the Con- 
tinental Congress, sailed under the same device — a green pine 
tree in the centre of a white field — with the motto: "Appeal to 
Heaven,"f and the floating batteries of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania in the Delaware River also carried this flag — a green pine 
tree in the centre of a white field — in the autumn of 1775, and 
likewise during the operations on that river in the defence of the 
city of Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778. 

The facsimile of tliis Flag was presented to the Society by James 
Mifflin, Esq. 



* Colonel Joseph Reed, in a letter from Cambridge, Mass., to Colonels 
Glover and Moylan, dated October 20, 1775, said, "Please to fix some par- 
ticular color for a flag, and a signal, by which our vessels may know one 
another. What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the 
middle, the motto — 'Appeal to Heaven'? This is the flag of our floating 
batteries." 

t The London Chronicle — an anti-ministerial newspaper — in its issue 
for January, 1776, states that an American provincial privateer had been 
captured and that its bunting flag, when in the British Admiralty oflSce, 
"consisted of a white field with a green pine tree in the middle, and upon 
the opposite side the motto, 'Appeal to Heaven'." 




THE CRESCENT FLAG 

USED AT THE DEFENSE OF FT. SULLIVAN, &.C.. JUNE. 177 



7. The Crescent Flag of Fort Sullivan, S. C. 

The Crescent Flag used in the historic defence of Fort SulH- 
van (now Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, in Charleston 
Harbor) against the British in June 1776, by Colonel William 
Moultrie, was the first American flag used in the South in the 
Revolution. It consisted of a dark-blue field with a white 
crescent in the upper right-hand (dexter) corner. 

Colonel, afterwards General Moultrie, states in his Memoirs 
that "as there was no national flag at the time, I was desired 
by the Council of Safety (on September 13, 1775, on taking 
possession of Fort Johnson, on James Island, in the harbor) to 
have one made ; upon which, as the State troops were clothed 
in blue and the fort was garrisoned by the men of the first and 
second regiments who wore a silver crescent on the front of 
their caps, I had a large blue flag made with a crescent in the 
dexter corner to be uniform with the troops. This was the first 
American flag displayed in the South." 

It was this flag that the gallant Sergeant William Jasper, 
of South Carolina, in the attack on Fort Sullivan, the following 
summer, fastened up on a sponge-staff and replaced upon the 
bastion in the midst of a furious fire, after it had been shot away 
by the enemy's fleet and had fallen outside the parapet upon 
the beach. For his heroic act Governor Rutledge, the following 
day, presented him with his own sword, and thanking him in 
the name of his country, tendered him an officer's commission 
which Jasper modestly declined. 




FLAG CARRIED BY CAPTAIN CONYNGHAM IN HIS CRUISES 



23 



8. The Rattlesnake Flag 

This famous flag consists of thirteen horizontal aUernate red 
and blue stripes — sometimes also alternate red and white stripes 
— bearing diagonally across them a rattlesnake in a moving or 
running position, with the threatening motto above or beneath, 
"Don't tread on me." 

The flag was used by different organizations of the Ameri- 
can army during the Revolution, but particularly by the vessels 
of the American navy, as stated by John Jay in a letter dated 
July, 1776. Captain John Paul Jones was supposed to have used 
this special device, though an English writer of the period of 
Jones' cruise in European waters (in 1779), is quoted as say- 
ing, "a strange flag has lately appeared in our seas, having a 
pine tree with the portraiture of a rattlesnake coiled up at its 
roots and with these daring words, 'Don't tread on me.' " This 
flag would seem to be almost the same as that designed by Colonel 
Gadsden, of South Carolina, in 1776, for "the Commander in 
Chief of the American Navy." [See No. 9.] 

The brave Captain Gustavus Conyngham, whose memory 
has been honored by this Society, also carried the rattlesnake 
flag at the masthead of his little vessels, the "Surprise" and "Re- 
venge," in his continued successful attacks on British commerce 
in 1777 and the following years of the Revolution. 

The facsimile of this Flag was presented to the Society by James 
Mifflin, Esq. 



♦ 







DONT TREAD ON ME 



I 



FLAG OF THE CONTINENTAL NAVY 



25 



9. The Flag of the Continental Navy 

In December, 1775, the Continental Congress provided for 
the fitting-out of five ships of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight 
guns, and three of twenty-four guns, making thirteen ships in all, 
to form a navy of the United Colonies ; but no provision was 
made for a naval flag. 

John Jay, in a letter dated July, 1776, states that Congress 
had made no order "concerning Continental colors, and that cap- 
tains of the armed vessels had followed their own fancies." He 
names as one device a rattlesnake rearing its crest and shaking its 
rattles, and having the motto, "Don't tread on me." 

De Benvouloir, the emissary of Vergennes, in 1775, reports 
to the Frencli minister : "They have given up the English flag 
and have taken for their device a rattlesnake with thirteen rat- 
tles." 

The rattlesnake was a favorite device with the Colonists, and 
its origin as an American emblem is a curious feature of our 
national history. 

The plate represents one of the variants of this naval Hag. 




NAVAL PRIVATEER FLAG 

USED BV CONTINENTAL AS WELL AS BY AMERICAN PRIVATEER VESSELS 



27 



10. Naval Privateer Flag Used During 
the Revolution 

This flag of thirteen alternate yellow and black stripes — 
sometimes varied by thirteen yellow and white stripes* — was 
used, according to Preble in his "History of the United States 
Flag," by Continental as well as by American privateer vessels. 
It was also often, probably, a decoy flag which had been used 
by some of the Continental cruisers in foreign ports. 



* "In September, 1776, the Continental brig 'Reprisal,' 16 guns, com- 
manded by Captain Lambert Wickes, while lying at Martinique, W. I., 
bore a flag of thirteen stripes, whose field was yellow and wliite." — Preble. 




FLAG OF THE FIRST PENNSYLVANIA (CONTINENTAL) 
LINE REGIMENT 



29 



11. The Flag of the First Pennsylvania (Continental) 
Line Regiment 

This standard had a deep green field with a crimson square 
in the centre, bearing on the square, as a device, a hunter in the 
attitude of striking a hon enclosed in a net, with a spear. The 
motto below is "Domari Nolo" (I refuse to be subjugated). The 
flag, described in a letter by Lieutenant-colonel Hand to James 
Yeates, of Lancaster, Penna., dated Prospect Hill, March 8, 1776, 
was carried by the regiment through the Revolution in all its 
skirmishes and battles, from Boston, in 1775, to Yorktown, in 
1781. It was with this regiment with Wayne in Georgia in 1782, 
and in camp on James Island, S. C, in 1783, when the news of 
peace reached there, and whence the regiment embarked for 
Philadelphia soon after^vard. 

The original flag is now in the State Library at Harrisburg. 




FLAG OF THE HANOVER ASSOCIATORS 

OF LANCASTER CO.. PENNA. 



31 



12. The Flag of the Hanover Associators of Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania 

A crimson flag, bearing as a device a rifleman in green hunt- 
ing shirt and buckskin leggings, standing on guard, with the 
motto, "Liberty or Death" underneath on a yellow scroll. 

The Hanover Associators (or Volunteers) originated at a 
meeting on June 4, 1774, of the inhabitants of Hanover, Lan- 
caster Co., Penna. Resolutions were there adopted, "That in 
the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon 
us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and 
our rifles." The flag of the Hanover Riflemen was also adopted 
by the committee at the same time. 




FLAG OF 
COL. JOHN PROCTOR'S INDEPENDENT BATTALION 

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNA, 



33 



13. The Flag of the Independent Battalion, Westmore- 
land County, Pennsylvania 

Tlie flag was of crimson silk with the British Union Jack 
in the upper right-hand corner, and is of tlie greatest interest 
because it is an old Enghsh ensign altered for use by American 
patriots. In the centre of the field is a rattlesnake coiled, with 
head erect, in the attitude of striking, and under it the motto so 
frequently used — "Don't tread on me." The letters above ("J- P-" 
and "I. B. W. C. P.") indicate "Colonel John Procter's First 
Brigade, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania." 

The flag was used by Colonel Procter's regiment through- 
out the war and was carried at Trenton, Princeton and in other 
battles. On Colonel Procter's death it passed to the next senior 
officer, and so on to the last survivor with whose family it re- 
mained. 



A 



t ' 



I 



-T' ▼- 






i 



ROYAL (OR BOURBON) FLAG OF FRANCE 



35 



14. The Royal (or Bourbon) Flag of France 

A white silk flag, the field scmee (or sprinkled) with fleurs- 
de-lis of gold and used by the French allied forces in the Ameri- 
can Revolution.* 



* The correctness of the arrangement of the fleurs-de-lis on this flag 
would appear, on historical investigation, to be open to doubt. The royal 
banner of France was originally, from the reign of Louis VII (A. D. ii37- 
1180) azure (blue) setnee of fleurs-de-lis, and so continued for several 
centuries. Charles V (temp. A. D. I,'!65) reduced the number of fleurs- 
de-lis to three. The field was also afterwards changed from blue to white, 
and this was the royal color, with the three golden fleurs-de-lis— an 
heraldic anomaly — during the entire reign of the Bourbons. See Bou- 
tcll's Heraldry. 




BANNER OF PULASKI'S LEGION 



IREVERSE 

MADE FOfl AND PRESENTED TO COUNT PULASKI BV THE MORAVIAN SISTERS AT BETHLEHEM, PA. 




BANNER OF PULASKI'S LEGION 
(OBVERSE! 

ADE FOR ANO PRESENTGO TO COUNT PULASKI BY THE MORAVIAN SISTERS AT BETHLEHEM, PA 



37 

15. Count Pulaski's Banner 

A cavalry guidon of double crimson silk with the designs 
on each side handsomely embroidered in yellow silk, and the 
ktters shaded with green. On the obverse side of the banner 
appears the "all-seeing Eye" within a circle of thirteen stars 
surrounded by the motto, "Non alius regit" (No other governs). 
On the reverse are the letters "U. S." encircled with the motto, 
"Unita virtus forcior" (Union makes valor stronger). 

This banner was made for and presented to the brave Count 
Pulaski by the Moravian sisters at Bethlehem, Penna., after he 
had raised and organized an independent corps of sixty-eight 
horse and two hundred foot at Baltimore, Md., in 1778. Pulaski 
received the banner gratefully and bore it gallantly through 
many battles until he fell at Savannah, Ga., in the autumn fjf 
1779. The banner was saved by his lieutenant — though him- 
self sorely wounded — and it eventually reached Baltimore after 
the close of the war, where it was used in the procession that 
welcomed La Fayette to that city, during his visit to this country 
in 1824, and was then deposited, first in Peak's Museum and 
afterwards with the Maryland Historical Society (in 1844), in 
whose rooms it is still carefully preserved. 

But little of its former beauty remains, the crimson silk 
being now faded to a dull brownish red. A deep green bullion 
fringe ornamented the edges of the banner which was attached 
to a lance when borne in the field. The size of the original flag 
is only twenty inches square. 

The presentation of the flag to Pulaski and the soldier's 
glorious death, are commemorated by the poet Longfellow in his 
stirring "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns," at the consecration of 
the banner.* 



*The word nun as applied to the Moravian sect lias a different sig- 
nificance from tliat indicated in speaking of the female recluses of tlie 
Roman Catholic Church. In the former case it virtually meant only the 
single women or sisters of the Moravian colonists. The poem of Long- 
fellow, unfortunately, contains several historical inaccuracies — possibly 
pardonable from the view of a poetical license. 



i^' 




STANDARD OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF'S GUARD 



39 

16. The Flag of the Commander in Chief's Guard 

This flag, frequently designated as that of "Washington's 
Life Guard" (which term was resolved by Congress on April 
15, 1777, to be a misnomer), originally consisted of white silk 
on which the following device was painted : One of the Guard 
was represented holding a caparisoned horse and in the act of 
receiving a banner or pennon from the Genius of Liberty, who 
was personified as a woman leaning upon the LTnion shield, near 
which is the American eagle. The figures stood upon a green 
ground and overhead on a ribbon was the motto of the corps, 
"Conquer or Die." The figure of the Guard was in the uniform 
adopted for the corps, a blue coat with white facings, white 
waistcoat and breeches, black half-gaiters, a cocked hat with a 
blue and white feather, and sword and cross belt. The female 
figure was robed in light blue. 

The original flag was owned by Mr. George Washington 
Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Washington, and was 
deposited by Mr. Custis in the Museum at .•\lexandria, Yn., with 
many other valuable relics, including Dritish flags captured at 
Trenton and at Yorktown, and one that belonged to Morgan's 
Rifle Corps. The entire collection was accidentally destroyed 
by fire at the burning of the museum several years after the 
close of the Civil War.* 

The Guard of the Commander in Chief was a distinct corps 
of superior men attached to his person, but never for this reason 
specially spared in battle. It was organized in 1776, soon after 
the siege of Boston and while the American army was encamped 
on Manhattan Island, near New York City. It consisted of 
a battalion of one hundred and eighty men under the command 
of an officer with the rank of Captain Commandant ; care being 
always taken to have all the States, from wliicii the Continental 
army was supplied with troops, represented in the corps. 



* An accurate description of the flag given recently by an aged resi- 
dent of Alexandria, Va., who liad often seen it, corresponds exactly to 
that given by Lossing in his "Field Book of the Revolution." The Hag 
was about two feet in Icngtli. 



40 

During the winter of 1779-80, however, wiien the American 
army under Washington was cantoned at IMorristown, N. J., 
in close proximity to the enemy, the Guard was increased to two 
hundred and fifty men. It was feduced to its original number 
in the following spring, and early in 1783, the last year of its 
service, was again reduced to only sixty-four non-commissioned 
officers and privates, and under its new and final reorganization 
(on June 16, 1783), it consisted of but thirty-eight rank and file, 
twelve of whom were mourited.* The Guard was armed with 
muskets and occasionally carried side arms. 

The organization was finally disbanded and mustered out 
of service on Constitution Island, opposite West Point, N. Y., 
December 23, 1783. 



* See Journal of Congress, October 6, 1783. Without doubt, the flag 
of the corps was used exclusively by tlie latter body, which escorted the 
baggage-wagons containing the personal effects of General Washington 
to Mount Vernon, under orders of November 9, 1783. 




• ** 





BANNER OF THE WASHINGTON ARMS 



41 

17. Banner Containing the Washington Arms 

Tlie arms of the Washington family may be heraldically 
described as follows : 

Argent. — Two bars gules, in chief three nuillets of the second. 

Crest. — An Eagle issuant, wings endorsed, sable, out of a 
ducal coronet or. 

Motto. — Virtus sola nobilitas (X'irtue the only nobility). 

These arms (of red stripes or bars and stars of the same 
color, on a white or silver shield) were used, not only by 
General Washington, but by preceding successive generations 
of the W'ashington family in both England and .America, and 
were, without doubt, authentic ; the family having been distin- 
guished and frequently mentioned in the local histories of the 
mother country. The same arms appear also in carvings in both 
the manor house, which still exists, and the ancient parish church 
at Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, England.* 



* That General W'asliington — it may be added, however, in explana- 
tion of his use of family arms — was not a blinded believer in heraldic 
coats of arms as a mere evidence of aristocratic lineage, and for this 
sole reason retained their use, lut on the contrary regarded and preserved 
them as a valuable historical adjunct to the record of a distinguished 
family, as they are properly so regarded by many others at tliis day, is 
evidenced by a letter written by him in 1788 to a Mr. Barton on the sub- 
ject, five years after the formation of tlie Society of the Cincinnati by 
the officers of the American army. 

"It is far from my design," he writes, "to intimate an opinion that 
heraldry, coat-armour, etc., might not be rendered conducive to public 
and private uses with us, or that they can have any tendency unfriendly 
to tlie purest spirit of republicanism. * * * While a certain portion 
of the community, probably from turbulent or sinister views, are clamor- 
ously endeavoring to propagate an idea that those whom they wish in- 
vidiously to designate by the name of 'the well-born', are meditating to 
distinguish themselves from their compatriots and to wrest the dearest 
privileges from the bulk of the people, I think it impolitic to agitate any 
subject that may tend to promote these feelings. * * * 

"I make these observations with the greater freedom, because I have 
once been a witness to what I conceived to have been a most unreason- 
able prejudice against any innocent institution — I mean the Society of 
the Cincinnati. I was conscious that my own proceedings on the sub- 
ject were immaculate. I was also convinced that the members, actuated 
by motives of sensibility, charity and patriotism, were doing a laudable 
thing in erecting that memorial of their common services, sufferings and 
friendships." 

Sec account of the Society of the Cincinnati, by Alexander Johnston, 
in Memoirs of the Historical Society of Peimsylvania, Vol. VI., Phila., 
1858. 



i 



I 




STANDARD OF THE FIRST TROOP PHILADELPHIA CITY CAVALRY 

(PHILADFI PHIA TROOP OF LIGHT HORSF ) 



43 

18. Flag of the First Troop, Philadelphia 
City Cavalry 

This flag is of yellow silk, with silver fringe, and bears in 
its corner a canton of thirteen alternate blue and silver stripes. 
This canton is the earliest known instance of the thirteen stripes 
being used upon an American banner. In the centre of the flag 
is a blue shield bearing a golden knot from which radiate thir- 
teen golden scrolls like the ends of as many strips of ribbon; 
this is a very early symbol of the idea expressed by the motto : 
"E pluribits iinum." 

The head of a bay horse bearing a white star on his fore- 
head appears as a crest, while as supporters we find "a Conti- 
nental masquerading as an Indian," holding a golden staff sur- 
mounted by a liberty cap, and an angel with a stalif in one hand 
and a golden trumpet in the other. These figures symbolize 
liberty and fame. Beneath, on a ribbon, is the motto, obviously 
referring to the supporters: "Forthese we strive," and over the 
crest appears the cipher letters "L. H." 

The original of this flag was presented to the Philadelphia 
Troop of Light Horse, now known as the First Troop, Philadel- 
phia City Cavalry, by Captain Abraham Markoe in 1775, and 
was carried by the Troop at Trenton, Princeton, the Brandywine 
and Germantown. 

Captain Markoe resigned his commission late in 1775, an 
edict of Christian \'lll. King of Denmark, having forbidden his 
subjects to engage in war against Great Britain under penalty 
of the confiscation of their property. 

The flag is beautifully made and richly mounted, and is now 
carefully preserved by the First City Troop in its armory in 
Philadelphia, it having been placed between sheets of glass and 
fitted into a specially constructed frame. 

A short while ago the original bills for designing and paint- 
ing the flag, were discovered by a descendant of Captain Mar- 
koe, and they are now to be found safely kept in the case that 
protects the flag from fire and decay. 

The facsimile of this Standard was presented to the Society by 
Horace Magee, Esq. 




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